Crichton Castle

One of the largest and finest of Scottish castles, standing on a bare and lofty site overlooking the River Tyne. The nucleus is a plain fourteenth century tower-house, to which a group of buildings, dating variously from the fifteenth seventeenth centuries, has been added, so as to form a quadrangular mansion, enclosing a narrow courtyard. The most spectacular feature of these additions is an arcaded range, the upper frontage of which is wrought with faceted stone work. This work, in the Italianate manner, was erected by the Earl of Bothwell between 1581 and 1591. He had been in Italy, and probably had seen the Palazzo dei Diamanti at Ferrara. Near the castle is the fine fifteenth century parish church. Located two and a half miles south-south-west of Pathhead which is on the Edinburgh-Lauder road.